[2] A lot of these settlements would've included a variety of domestic structures, cache pits, middens, and burials.
[2] Most of the individuals living in the areas of Kansas during the Middle Ceramic Period would've relied on a dual economy based on the hunting of bison and on agricultural products such as corn, beans, and squash.
[9] The only well known, extensively investigated site known in northern Kansas for the Middle Ceramic Period is the Glen Elder Locality.
Each of these sites provides a variety of information on settlement aspects, subsistence, and materials that were present during the Middle Ceramic Period.
[8] In the Odessa Phase, the primary house forms present are oval-to-circular subterranean pit structure.
Overall, compared to the size of the entire Odessa Phase, burials are rare, leading to a theory that possibly excarnation was done.
Also found was a variety of grave goods throughout the burials, and these include mussel shells, elbow pipes of Kansas pipestone, caches of Alibates flakes, large bifaces, Olivella shell beads, celts produced from nonlocal materials, cord-marked ceramics, bone awls, tibia digging sticks, conch and abalone shell ornaments, and turquoise beads and pendants.
Evidence of wild plant consumption and utilization was also shown, and these included sunflower, purslane, goosefoot, sand plums, knotweed, marsh elder, bulrush, and carpetweed.
Present in a few of the ceramics was lip tabs and handles, smoothed cord marking, and corncob impressions.
Tempers in all the ceramics are typically sand, but also consist of bone, crushed stone, grog, and grit.
This one instance is of a child that was discovered in a flexed position on the floor of a pit that was exposed in the trench of a silo wall.
There was evidence of marrow extraction and bone grease reduction from the bison, and charred pits were also found.
[17] In the Pratt Complex, there is evidence of a large amount of bone tools, which are all bison, besides some awls formed from deer pronghorns.
Groundstone inventory included arrow shaft abraders and hammerstones, and domestic processing equipment was also present which consisted of manos, metates, and mauls.
[18] Typical features associated with the Bluff Creek Complex include surface structures of ovoid and subrectangular forms, and when found in prairie settings houses have been identified as low mounds.
Other pole structures were found near the houses may indicate domestic work areas such as drying racks and scaffolds.
[21] In the Bluff Creek Complex, there is evidence of bone tools, which are bison scapula hoes and tibia digging stick tips.
On ceramics without cord-marking, shell-tempered wares with nodes and strips are common and appear to represent something beyond what the locals traditionally did.